This list contains 30 titles reflecting the diversity of South African literature.

Savour the sheer beauty of Damon Galgut’s writing, or that of Alex la Guma.   Go back to old favourites, like Alan Paton’s “Cry, the Beloved Country” or try something new, like Mandla Langa’s “The Memory of Stones”.

Read Achmat Dangor or Zoe Wicomb – both South African writers with Scottish connections.

There is something for everyone in South African writing, and writing about South Africa.

1.   Brink, Andre
The Other Side of Silence.
Any book by Andre Brink is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the human condition.   Brink always challenges his readers to think about the moral dilemmas facing his characters.   This book tells the fate of one young woman in the German colony of South West Africa.

2.   Buchan, John
Prester John
A story of imperial adventure in South Africa by the author of the Richard Hannay novels (The Thirty-nine Steps, Greenmantle etc).   But will you be on the side of the Rev. John Lamola?

3.   Case, Maxine
All we have left unsaid
Danika believes she is able to cope with anything. Now, as she keeps a lonely vigil at her mother's hospital bed, helplessly watching her life slip away, Danika is once again confronted by the dark secrets of her childhood in Cape Town in the 1980s.

4.   Coetzee, J.M.
The Life and Times of Michael K.
A bleak vision of what might have happened in South Africa, written before Nelson Mandela was released from prison, by a Booker prize-winning author.

5.   Dangor, Achmat
Bitter fruit.
A story of truth and reconciliation in the Rainbow Nation, and what happens when the perpetrators refuse to accept the responsibility for what they have done.   Achmat Dangor visits Scotland regularly – his wife comes from Glasgow.

6.   Dlamini, Gcinaphe
Love, chocolate and shopping.
Who can resist a title like that?   A story about teenagers being teenagers, going to dancers, wondering what to wear, and falling in love.

7.   Duiker, K. Sello
Thirteen cents
A story about the Cape Town that the tourists do not see.   A young boy grows up in Sea Point, living alongside gangsters.   A South African version of Glasgow’ very own “No Mean City”.

8.   Evans, David
A touch of the sun.
A stunning and very honest account of a young boy growing up white in apartheid South Africa.   And there is a family secret that will change his life for ever.   Lots of descriptions of sex.

9.   Fitzpatrick, Sir Percy
Jock of the Bushveld.
A classic of South African literature, which cannot be left out of a list like this, especially because of the Scottish connection.

10.   Foden, Giles
Ladysmith.
Giles Foden’s account of the siege of Ladysmith in the Boer War.   Wellington Maseko, a young boy, risks his life running between enemy lines to carry messages to the British.   If you liked Foden’s “Last King of Scotland” you will love this.

11.   Galgut, Damon
The Good Doctor
A young doctor tries to make a difference in post-apartheid South Africa.   This is a beautifully written, elegiac account of the building of the Rainbow Nation.

12.   Golightly, Walton
Amazulu.
A rip-roaring adventure story about Shaka, the first Zulu king.

13.   Gordimer, Nadine
Burger’s daughter.
This is a classic fictional account of the struggle against apartheid, by a world renowned author.   The heroine is the daughter of an imprisoned anti-apartheid leader, and this story tells of how she comes to terms with her political inheritance.   This is a book that you must read.

14.   Hope, Christopher
My Mother’s Lovers
His mother's mad, and has lovers coming out of her ears.   His country is even madder - apartheid South Africa and its aftermath.   And the hero has to cope with Rain Queens, pygmies living in his back garden, a Cuban dancer pretending to be a doctor, and the bodyguard who ducked when Verwoerd was shot, but not killed.

15.   Johnson, Shaun
The Native Commissioner
A heart-wrenching portrayal of a kind and conscientious man who felt himself cast adrift under the weight of South African apartheid.

16.   La Guma, Alex
A Walk in the Night and other stories.
If you have not discovered Alex La Guma, you are in for a treat.   This is a collection of exuberant, life-enhancing stories about Cape Town’s District Six before it was bull-dozed by the apartheid regime.

17.   Langa, Mandla
The memory of stones.
Based upon the author's wide experience of exile in the UK, 'The Memory of Stones' is a novel about Zadwa, a sophisticated young graduate, and her clashes with men who subscribe to traditional attitudes and values towards women in South Africa.

18.   Mda, Zakes
The whale caller.
The whale caller is living a quiet life in his bungalow on South Africa's Cape, spending his days calling to the whales out at sea. His life is peaceful if a little eccentric until a drunken woman in stilettos, who has been following him about for weeks, finally manages to invade his solitude.

19.   Meyer, Deon
Dead at daybreak
An antiques dealer is killed, and the contents of his safe are missing. The only clues are a scrap of blank paper and the unusual weapon used. Ex-policeman Zed van Heerden has 14 days to find the killer and solve the crime.

20.   Mhlongo, Niq
Dog eats dog
A semi-autobiographical account of growing up in Hillbrow, one of the suburbs of Johannesburg, told with wit, humour and heart-rending insight.

21.   Naidoo, Beverley
Journey to Jo’burg
A classic children’s story that should be read by every adult.   This is the story of love, commitment and the flowering of the human spirit against the background of South Africa's apartheid.

22.   Paton, Alan
Cry, the Beloved Country.
An indisputable South African classic – the story of the Reverend Khumalo’s journey to Johannesburg in search of his errant son, and of the help given him by Father Vincent and the Rev. Msimangu (played by Sidney Poitier in the film).

23.   Serote, Mongane
To Every Birth its Blood
Alexandra Township, just outside Johannesburg, and the people who live there are the characters in this book.   You will discover the links in a chain of extended families, friendships, street gangs and political groups.

24.   Sharpe, Tom
Riotous Assembly
Tom Sharpe’s biting satire on the South African police got him expelled from the country by the apartheid state.   Your mind will boggle at the sheer murderous lunacy of Kommandant van Heerden, Luitnant Verkramp and Konstabel Els.   And I defy you not to cry when the vulture dies.

25.   Shukri, Ishtyaq
The silent minaret
This is a thriller set amongst the South African community living in Finsbury Park, London.   Issa, a South African student, vanishes without trace.   Issa's friend Katinka, his brother Kagiso, mother Dr Vasinthe Kumar and London neighbour Frances, all reconstruct their memories of the missing man, looking for clues in the past that might explain this riddle.

26.   Slovo, Gillian
Red Dust.
You must read this political thriller, by the daughter of two leading South African anti-apartheid activists, examining the process of truth and reconciliation in the new South Africa.   You will not be able to put this book down.

27.   Sisulu, Elinor
The Day Gogo went to vote.
This is an account of the first democratic elections in South Africa, 27th April 1994, through the eyes of children watching their grandmother (“Gogo” means grandmother) going to vote for the first time.

28.   Themba, Can
Requiem for Sophiatown
This collection of 25 short stories and sketches celebrates the people of Sophiatown, and their resistance to the forced removal from Johannesburg to Soweto.

29.   Wicomb, Zoe
Playing in the light.
Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s Cape Town, this novel revolves around Marion, a woman of Afrikaner background, who hates travelling but nonetheless runs a travel agency, and her complex relationship with Brenda, the first black woman she has ever employed.   Zoe Wicomb teaches at the University of Strathclyde.

30.   Zadok, Rachel
Gem Squash Tokoloshe
Rachel Zadok’s novel about a young girl growing up in South Africa with her disturbed mother is a sensitively-written, perceptive story.   “Tokoloshe” means goblin in Zulu.
 
Compiled by David Kenvyn, ACTSA National Executive